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Notable: scary stories

 
Tampa Bay Times
Published Oct. 21, 2015

Notable

Scary stories

Just in time for Halloween, three new books tell tales, fictional and real, to make you shiver.

Ghostly (Scribner), introduced and illustrated by Audrey Niffenegger (The Time Traveler's Wife), collects 16 classic ghost stories by authors ranging from Edgar Allan Poe to Neil Gaiman, with elegant original art by Niffenegger.

Science of the Magical: From the Holy Grail to Love Potions to Superpowers (Scribner) by Matt Kaplan applies research to find the real in magical narratives, from witches' spells to gateways to the underworld.

The Witch of Lime Street: Séance, Seduction, and Houdini in the Spirit World (Crown) by David Jaher is a nonfiction book that reads like a novel, an engrossing account of the 1924 showdown between magician Harry Houdini and a high-society psychic named Mina Crandon.

Contact Colette Bancroft at cbancroft@tampabay.com or (727) 893-8435. Follow @colettemb.